Government Deploys Transmission Infrastructure: Sonora

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that a new electrical transmission line is being laid to interconnect the state of Sonora with the Baja California Peninsula. "We are currently laying down the transmission line toward the border, toward Mexicali, where there previously was none," he stated during his Friday morning press conference.

Ahead of his upcoming visit to Sonora, López Obrador highlighted the state's energy potential, particularly in photovoltaic electricity generation and its reserves of lithium and other critical minerals essential for electromobility development. "Sonora has the capacity to produce electric energy with photovoltaic solar plants. We are currently constructing the largest solar plant in the Americas in Puerto Peñasco, which we will be visiting soon with the president-elect," the president noted.

Regarding lithium, Sonora holds reserves estimated at around 243.8Mt in lithium carbonate form. López Obrador emphasized the importance of this resource and copper for EV manufacturing: "Sonora possesses strategic natural resources, specifically two crucial ones: lithium and copper. Conventional vehicles require 20-25kg of copper, while electric vehicles need around 100kg," he said.

During the previous administration, a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) line was under tender to interconnect the National Interconnected System (SIN) with the electrical system of Baja California. However, President López Obrador's government canceled this tender, which would have facilitated the laying of a 1,400km-c line back then.